Largest mounds

"What we have to do is take the soil away and have it analysed by a laboratory... and find the gold that way," he said.

"We're talking about very low levels of gold."

Dr Stewart says looking at termite mounds is not a new idea, but until now any attempt to detect mineral wealth has focused on the largest mounds, usually found in the Northern Territory.

He says a smaller mound will do just as well.

"The insects that I'm looking at occupy a vast area of central Australia, so we're talking about down into quite southern latitudes, so we're talking about animals right across Australia, not just the big termite mounds that are in the north."

Alternative

Mineral exploration in Australia can be expensive because resources tend to be well below the surface and drilling is required to find out what is there.

Dr Stewart says termites could provide an alternative.

"There is quite a history of people looking at termite mounds to find gold," he said.

"In fact in Africa, some mounds have enough gold in them that people are panning them to get the gold out.

"So the idea has sort of been around, it's really about how we applied it to the Australian landscape."

Dr Stewart says his technique could also possibly find other valuable resources.

"So far I've really had the most success looking at gold, but certainly we're researching into other resources as well, for example VMS, which is volcanic massive sulphide deposits, which will have zinc and other resources in them.

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.